Despite the national recession, New Orleans is attracting a wave of workers pursuing entrepreneurial jobs

Katie Del Guercio never planned on permanently settling in New Orleans after graduating from college five years ago, but during a gap year of travel she decided otherwise.

"I landed here as a volunteer and I felt that this was the community I could really make my mark in," said Del Guercio, now the business development director for KODA, a new company in New Orleans that helps students and young professionals connect with employers online.

Del Guercio isn't the only one moving to south Louisiana.

New Orleans actually ranked eighth on Forbes' March 2009 list of "10 Cities Where Americans Are Relocating." And in spite of the struggling national economy the metro area continues to experience an influx of workers -- many of them younger -- seeking opportunities at some of the entrepreneurial ventures and up-and-coming industries that have taken root since Hurricane Katrina.

Some experts say the growth of new local industries like digital media, of which KODA is a part, goes back to Hurricane Katrina.

"Katrina did a lot of horrible things, but what it did to prepare us for the recession was that the number of people who returned clearly matched the kind of jobs we had in our recovery economy," said Janet Speyrer, professor and director of the division of business and economic research at the University of New Orleans. That put the local economy on the solid footing it needed to weather the national downturn.

In fact, Thomas Rush, communications manager for the local economic development group GNO Inc., thinks the economic downturn has actually boosted interest among many workers in moving to New Orleans.

"Most of the people I meet in (in the local digital media industry) are not from New Orleans and have moved here recently and do everything from Web design to video game design, not to mention of course music and film."

Tim Williamson, president and co-founder of the Idea Village, a nonprofit that identifies and supports promising local entrepreneurs, agrees.

"New Orleans is attractive because there are lots of opportunities here and less layoffs than in other places like Boston or San Francisco," Williamson said.

In addition to digital media, Williamson said other hot sectors include green business, those ventures that pursue environmental sustainability, and urban redevelopment.

"Katrina reversed the brain drain, so you've seen an influx of new talent and capital coming in," he said. "If you're an individual looking to take on the most pressing economic and social challenges, there's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity here with entrepreneurship."

Idea Village has had 1,300 applicants since 2005, 19 percent of which have received direct services. Even though New Orleans has experienced job losses during the recession, Williamson said he is optimistic because entrepreneurship immediately creates jobs.

"They start things and immediately have to hire," he said. "We're a part of that process, so what Idea Village does is now part of the national dialogue of how to create new jobs in your community."

New Orleans native Kenneth Purcell, 34, who founded the customizable traveling and entertainment online platform iSeatz, has been working with Idea Village since 2003. His company is a testimony to the ability of local entrepreneurial ventures to attract workers from outside the metro area.

"If you look at my senior management team or any of the people we've brought in recently, we're bringing in people from out of town," he said. "Of our entire staff, probably 80 percent are non-New Orleans natives."

In addition to luring workers from out of state to work in high-growth industries taking root in New Orleans, the metro area is also increasingly retaining students who attend local colleges and universities.

"Thirty-seven percent of students indicated that they are going to reside in New Orleans after graduation to either work or go to graduate school," said Amjad Ayoobi, associate dean at Newcomb-Tulane College, about the class of 2009.

Ayoobi said that even though the career center has seen a drop in job postings, the local nonprofit and education sectors are increasingly reaching out to Tulane students.

"We are seeing more students interested in internships and jobs in public services," he said.

Internships in the New Orleans area are also becoming more popular among undergraduate students who attend out-of-state institutions.

Beth Galante, director of Global Green, said the environmental advocacy group saw a 50 percent increase in applications for its summer internship programs.

"We had a lot of applications last year because of Global Green's visibility, but it went up again between the job market and the new administration's support of the green economy," she said. "I think a lot of young people think this is the future of the country and want to get in as soon as possible to get those skill sets."

Two of Global Green's summer interns are participants in Yale University's Bulldogs in the Big Easy, or BITBE, a program that matches students with local internships, usually nonpaid, and provides free housing.

BITBE is only in its second year, but for both the 2008 and 2009 sessions 100 students applied for 23 positions, mostly with nonprofits involved in either the arts or reconstruction.

"The idea is to get people who eventually want to come to New Orleans to live," said Scott Sullivan, president of the Yale Club of Louisiana. "Three of the participants from last year who just graduated are planning to move here."

Allison Cantway of Yale's class of 2010 is working at New Orleans GlassWorks but plans to return to do Teach for America after graduation,

"In general, being in college, not having bills to pay, not having to pay off student loans, it seemed that this was the best time to take a nonpaid internship," she said. "New Orleans is such a great place for young adults looking to do something meaningful."

Teach for America has a lengthy track record of retaining its New Orleans corps. Mary Garten, director of alumni for TFA Louisiana, says that of the group that just finished its term, "just above 70 percent will stay in the New Orleans area."

"Since Katrina we've had a much higher rate of people stay in the area after the completion of their two years," she said. "Many of them are choosing to stay in the schools where they've worked in the last two years."

Williamson thinks Teach for America alumni have incredible potential to become the next front of entrepreneurship in New Orleans.

"I think the Teach for America talent base creates an opportunity," he said. "What we haven't seen yet is an education front with the transformation of charter schools, but I think we have leadership that wants to take that on."

Allison Good can be reached at agood@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3399.